Tuesday, Oct. 26, the third installment of the monthly electronic dance music series, Konkrete Jungle, will take the stage at the Cla-Zel Theater with new techniques and sounds, seeking to attract new faces to its doors.

Jungle roots

It was in a small bar on Chrystie Street in the Lower East Side of New York City, according to the event’s Facebook page, that the first Konkrete Jungle concert series came into being. Response and demand soon beckoned the event to larger clubs around the city, compelling it to stretch and deepen its roots.

Seeing opportunity for new light, the Jungle vined out along the paved veins of the nation, forming chapters in Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Portland, Milwaukee and Dallas. Its seeds later carried across the seas to countries in Europe, Asia and Australia.

The once fledging seed-series of the franchise in New York City currently stands as the longest running jungle/drum-and-bass weekly event in the world.

Earlier this year on Aug. 31, senior Brian Scavo (DJ What the Bleep) brought his own chapter of the greater series to Bowling Green with Beatday 5. The event celebrated his birthday and too gave birth to a Konkrete Jungle series on the last Tuesday of every month at the Cla-Zel.

The fertility of Bowling Green’s electronic soil is still being measured.

Jungle grows up

Beatday 5 turned out a success. The birthday/kickoff angle of the event, Scavo said, naturally lent it a large crowd. Seeing potential but expecting no promises, he fixed his eyes to the future and prepared for a fruitful follow-up.

“I’ve now got DJs from all over the Midwest contacting me, wanting to play,” Scavo said. “Everyone who has been coming out has had a blast, and that is really the foundation of the series.”

For the second chapter of the young series’ saga in Bowling Green, Scavo brought in UK artist Outrage as the show’s headliner, looking to keep the Jungle on the rise. While Scavo maintains that the quality of the experience at round two stayed stellar, the show stalled somewhat in the crowd it drew.

“Last month it may have been a little ambitious to bring an international headliner to a place where no one really knows who he is,” said Scavo. “Every month is a work in progress and I understand that.”

Pencil to the drawing board, Scavo is currently rethinking promotional schemes and considering alternative stage arrangements to dissolve the crowd-DJ disconnect some have told him the voluminous Cla-Zel can create. He also plans to place greater focus on the live, on-stage interpretive art during performances and bring in new sounds outside the series’ foundation. To test the climate of the town and the type of Jungle it can support, he is bringing in EDM’s current ace in the hole.

Paint the forest dubstep

According to Scavo–and the general state of the scene–the bass-bending dubstep genre is the most popular EDM approach spinning on DJs’ turntables today. He speculated much of this success can be credited to the similarities of the genre’s rhythms to those of hip-hop, affording it a more introductory danceability for those less seasoned in the culture.

“We’re at an interesting point for dubstep, because it’s getting attention that is unprecedented for any electronic music,” Scavo said.

Loyal to the broader EDM gamut, Scavo sees the surging popularity of dubstep with admiration and apprehension both. Hesitant to use the word “fad,” he stated with some prescience that dubstep cannot hold its high-water mark forever, that the evolution of dubstep and its role as a “gateway genre” to other forms of EDM is what’s really exciting to watch.

Of the five acts performing for Tuesday’s show, three will perform dubstep sets or dubstep hybrids. The event’s headliner, Madam Bliss, will weave dubstep with the series’ staple genre, jungle; a process Scavo explained she does so well, being able to step seamlessly across style lines with her compositions. Samples of her sets and tracks can be found by following a Soundcloud.com link on her Facebook page.

Coming home

Supporting artist for the show and former Bowling Green native Brett Bernardo (DJ Technician) will be the only pure dubstep act for the show. He has been performing the genre for a year and a half and has played clubs and festivals all over Ohio. To him, dubstep was an easy choice.

“I really like the groove, that kind of slow tempo it’s got in it,” he said. “In dubstep the bass line has this low frequency oscillator on it … that gives it that ‘womp’ sound.”

As did Scavo for Beatday 5, Bernardo celebrates his birthday at Tuesday’s event, doing what he most enjoys in a town he enjoys to this day.

“BG is always going to be a home of mine,” he said.

Student steps into the sticks

The concert Tuesday is 18-and-over with a $5 cover charge. First to the stage will be junior David Pfeiffer (DJ Fife) at 9 p.m., performing trance. Pfeiffer described the genre as much more melodic than other forms of EDM, with an atmospheric feel that can accentuate and shape moods.

“You can go to a show and because of the atmosphere the music and the DJ have built and because of elements trance has in it, there’s kind of a collective group feeling,” he said. “That’s a cool idea for me.”

Detailed set times and further information can be found on the Konkrete Jungle Facebook page.